2014 Hyundai Equus

Now it's an even stronger value.

As best we can tell, Hyundai’s upmarket Equus has failed to light any kind of a fire beneath the full-size luxury competition from Germany and Japan since being introduced for 2011. Of course, if you had little trouble selling your luxury boats for six-figures-plus, you probably wouldn’t see the Korean as much of a threat, either. We didn’t find much wrong with the Equus in its current form, and the big gal even notched a comparison-test win against the Lexus LS460L largely due to its impressive value proposition. Regardless, the rear-drive Equus is nearing its third birthday in the American market, and it’s time for a refresh.

For 2014, Hyundai’s plus-sized follow-up to its Genesis sedan gets a mild exterior and interior touch-up, as well as even more standard tech and safety features. The front bumper and grille are new, and look cleaner than before thanks to the removal of the outgoing car’s pair of chrome bumper appliqués and the addition of LED fog lights. The same goes for the rear bumper, which ditches its ungainly chrome-trimmed parking guards. A new set of 19-inch aluminum wheels—with a thin-spoke, turbine-style design and muted silver finish—bring more ambiance to the Equus’s look than the current model’s chunky chrome rims. Finally, out back, Hyundai tweaked the taillight internals to make them appear more complex and upscale—we say mission accomplished.

So This Is What the Inside of an Equus Looks Like

Inside, the Equus gets generally less-amorphous styling and an all-new dashboard, center stack, and steering wheel with crisper detailing. Hyundai updated the shapes and layout of the center-stack buttons and extended the dashboard wood veneer to the cabin’s full width. The analog clock now is square instead of round, and the previously dual-zone-only climate control array has been swapped for a tri-zone setup (front-left, front-right, and rear). Another shot of class comes courtesy of the leather-booted shift lever; previously it was bootless and operated via a plastic shift gate.

The Equus’s two optionless trim levels—Signature and top-dog Ultimate—return for 2014, and the Signature now comes with a larger seven-inch TFT gauge-cluster display, as well as a huge 9.2-inch center display that lives in an arced binnacle similar to that in the Genesis sedan. The Ultimate gets a 12.3-inch TFT digital gauge cluster, a new haptic-feedback steering-wheel dial for manipulating info in the gauge-cluster display, and a pair of 9.2-inch high-resolution rear-seat entertainment screens that replace the 2013 car’s single unit. The formerly four-seat-only Ultimate is now a five-seater, like the Signature, and power-closing doors now augment the model’s power-closing trunk. Finally, and perhaps because everyone else is doing it—looking at you BMW and Infiniti—Hyundai also has fitted as standard a new bird’s-eye, multiview parking camera setup to help owners thread the not-tiny Equus into tight parking spots.

It’s Tau-tally Powerful, Safe

Not much has changed beneath the Equus’s skin, although Hyundai did put some work into the car’s air suspension. The front suspension bushings were revised, and the driver-selectable damping settings are now firmer in Sport mode and softer in Normal. There’s now a Snow mode—but still no all-wheel-drive option, yet—for the drive-mode selections, as well. The Equus’s standard 5.0-liter Tau V-8, which was adopted for 2012, delivers a meaty 429 horsepower and 376 lb-ft of torque to the big Hyundai’s rear wheels. It is again hitched up to an eight-speed automatic transmission with a manual shift mode. Fuel economy for the 2014 model stays pat at 15 mpg in the city and 23 on the highway.

In case the Tau’s 429 raging ponies get the better of you, the 2014 Equus offers a suite of safety tech to save your bacon. Smart Cruise Control, which can bring the car to a complete stop, is standard, as are a lane-departure warning setup, and front, front-side, rear-side, side curtain, and driver knee airbags. This year, Hyundai has added a pre-collision warning system, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, and for Ultimate models, a head-up display screen. Hyundai’s latest version of the Blue Link telematics system is standard, and now includes automatic collision notification and SOS emergency assistance free for three years.

Hyundai has yet to release pricing info for the 2014 Equus, but we don’t anticipate the car will deviate far from the current Signature model’s $60,170 cost of entry. The outgoing Ultimate rings in at a slightly richer $67,170, but that’s still far below what BMW charges for a 7-series, Lexus for an LS, Audi for an A8, or Mercedes-Benz for an S-class. For luxury buyers on a budget, the Equus is still worth a look, regardless of whether or not it makes waves among its competitive set.

*AccuPayment estimates payments under various scenarios for budgeting and informational purposes only. AccuPayment does not state credit or lease terms that are available from a creditor or lessor, and AccuPayment is not an offer or promotion of a credit or lease transaction.

*AccuPayment estimates payments under various scenarios for budgeting and informational purposes only. AccuPayment does not state credit or lease terms that are available from a creditor or lessor, and AccuPayment is not an offer or promotion of a credit or lease transaction.